DAFFODILS!

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 6

DAFFODILS!

GREAT LONDON TRADE. (By NEDLE M. SCAN LAX.) LONDON, May 4. At tlic height of tlie season, a dozen daffodils are sold in London to every other flower. London uses nearly 3,000,000 daffodils a week, which k nearly three blooms to every inhabitant. Not only are they sold by the million, but they are grown by the hundred million, and besides the acres of their golden heads nodding in the parks a'bove the grate, every house, every cottage, indeed, every window, has its daffodils. Patches of dull earth, the size of a pocket handkerchief, suddenly burst into bloom, and become a garden, and give glory to a dingy slum. This is not surprising, however, for the daffodil is a Cockney flower. There have been wild daffodils in the British Isles for thousands of years, but these ancient native growths do not compare with the cultured flowers of' to-day in beauty and size. Yet the simple, miniature daffodil has its own peculiar charm. It was about the year 1000 that saw the first daffodil cultivated in a garden. John Parkinson, a Holborn chemist, travelled on horseback into the country in search of daffodils for liis. collection, and his garden became noted. The second enthusiast was Mr. Elleeomb, wlio grew daffodils in what is now Leicester Square. Mr. Salisbury, whose home and garden were in St. John's Wood, near Lord's cricket ground, where I saw Don Bradnian practising yesterday, was the' third to cultivate this lovely flower. By the time these three enthusiasts had died, the daffodil .was fli'mly established in the London soil, which so admirably suits it. Then the North Country manufacturers adopted it, and so it •spread. Competition became keen, and thousands. of pounds were spent on acquiring the best display of bulbs. There are now, it is estimated, 500 different varieties. There are few wild daffodils in England now, as collectors have been robbing the hedgerows and banks for hundreds of years, but in Sussex you may still find them flourishing in secluded corners. But men were not the only enemies of the wild daffodils; squirrels, badgers and field mice dug down and fed on the bulbs, and found them sweet and succulent. Now that the glory of the spring, the daffodil, is passing we feel that sunwner is a-coming in, and that brings consolation for the fading of this popular English flower. To-day I can buy the last of them at a penny a bunch, but in two days they are crumpled and dead.